Cotton Production Crosses 16m-Bale Mark In 97

The country has attained self-sufficiency in cotton with production crossing the 16 million bale mark in 1996-97, according to Venugopal, project co-ordinator and head of the Central Institute for Cotton Research here.

A five-fold increase in production had been recorded from 1949-50 onwards, when it stood at 2.75 million bales (of 170 kg each), to about 16 million bales during 1996-97. The area under cotton cultivation simultaneously rose from 4.93 million hectares to about 8.8 million hectares, he said.

The country had been able to export five to 15 lakh bales of cotton annually, which fetched Rs.20,000 crore, more than 22.5 per cent of the total export revenue, he said.

 

Productivity had increased from about 87 kg to about 299 kg per hectare, accompanied by an increase in the area of crop under irrigated conditions from two per cent in 1950 to about 31 per cent in the late 90s.

However, the productivity level did not compare favourably with some of the other cotton growing nations. The productivity would have to be stepped up from 300 kg to 400 kg of lint per hectare to meet the country's demand of 19 million bales by the year 2000, he said.

India has the largest area under cotton crop in the world. The total average area under the cotton crop globally is roughly 32.33 million hectares, and the 8.8 million hectares of land under cotton in the country constitutes 26 per cent of the global area, according to Venugopal.

In terms of seed cotton production, while the world production stood at 60 million tonnes in 1985, India's contribution was just eight million tonnes. A large portion of the cotton crop in India remained unirrigated, while in other nations, the crop was grown primarily under irrigated conditions, Venugopal said.

However, the productivity level in some of the states where the crop was grown only under irrigated conditions compared favourably with yields obtained in some of the major cotton producing countries of the world, he said. Another salient feature of the cotton scenario in the country was that India had taken to producing long staple and extra-long staple cotton that has been facilitated essentially by the production of several hybrids. As a result, the country's dependence on the import of long staple cotton had been totally obviated and it had become possible to export long staple cotton, he said.

One of the areas requiring special attention through research was improving the fibre quality and yield potential of Asiatic/Desi cotton.

In the context of recurring drought, moisture constraints and increasing pest activity, Desi cottons were quite attractive propositions, he said.